Valentine's Day
by Strawberry Tallcake
Summary: Lily hates Valentine's Day. She hides her feelings for James while her best friend and Sirius try to match her up. This kinda is what is happening to me right now! R/R!
1. The First Admittance

Disclaimer: No one belongs to me. Cept Annie. But maybe she doesn't even belong to me cuz she's a mix of me and my best friend. So no one belongs to me. Every character you've heard of belongs to the genius, J. K. Rowling. The plot probably isn't mine.  
  
A/N: This is happening to me. Good inspiration. Oh yah. I don't like Valentine's Day. So I thought this might be a good story. Using my favorite character ever (Sirius) I'm trying to make it like my life, only magic and at Hogwarts (which doesn't belong to me either)  
  
Valentine's Day  
  
Lily woke up with dread in her heart. Today was her least favorite day of the year. It wasn't that anything horrible ever happened on Valentine's Day. It's that nothing ever happened. She had always had big hopes for the day of love, but they never came out the way she wanted them to.  
  
She was jolted out of her thoughts by her best friend, Annie. "Come on, Lily, wake up!" she dragged Lily out of bed.  
  
"Ok, what's up with you?" Lily asked sleepily.  
  
"It's Valentine's Day! I love Valentine's Day! It's a day for secret admirers and love!" she said, giggling.  
  
"I don't believe in love," she mumbled to herself, as she got dressed, not even bothering to wear any red, like the other girls did. She wore all black, including black hair ties.  
  
She walked down the stairs morosely. She wasn't outgoing like her best friend. She knew she could never bring herself to admit to anyone, including Annie, who she liked. She knew Annie would just tell everyone. So she kept it to herself.  
  
"Sirius!" once again, she was jolted out of her thoughts by Annie. She had completely forgotten about Annie and Sirius. They had started going out last week.  
  
"Happy Valentine's Day, Luvabug!" Annie ran into his arms. They stood hugging each other for a couple of minutes. Lily tried to find other things to occupy her. When they finally broke apart, Lily was relieved. 3 minutes of twiddling her thumbs.  
  
"So, any special someone this year, Lilz?" Sirius asked.  
  
"Nah. I'm in 6th year, and I haven't even had a boyfriend. You two are my best friends. But even if I did like someone, I couldn't tell you. You'd tell everyone!"  
  
"Wait a minute, Lilz. Are you telling me you've had a crush on someone without telling me?" Annie asked curiously.  
  
"No way!" said Lily turning red.  
  
"Ooooo! Lily has a crush! Lily has a crush! Lily has a crush!" Sirius chanted.  
  
"So, who's the lucky boy?" Annie whispered.  
  
"No one," she squeaked.  
  
"Is he in Ravenclaw?"  
"No."  
  
"Hufflepuff?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Not Slytherin?!" she said, looking disgusted.  
  
"EEEW! No!"  
  
"Then it's gotta be Gryffindor!" she yelled triumphantly, scaring a couple of first years nearby. They walked as far as possible to avoid them.  
  
"Yah"  
  
"Ooo! Let me guess. Is it Remus?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Peter?"  
  
"Please, don't let it be Sirius!?" she said pleadingly.  
  
"No! I would never steal my best friends boyfriend!"  
  
"Hm…wait…Potter! You like Potter!"  
  
Unfortunately for Lily, Sirius had heard her.  
  
"Lilz? You like Jamie boy?"  
  
"What?" said Remus, coming over. "New juicy gossip?"  
  
"Yah! Lily just admitted her undying love for Potter," Sirius exclaimed.  
  
"OOOOOOO! Lily! Let me go tell him!"  
  
"No! If you do," she screamed grabbing Remus, "I will make your life as miserable. And Annie will help me, won't you?"  
  
"Well, Lilz, I think you should tell him. He might like you!"  
  
~She might be right~ "Ok, you can ask him"  
  
She walked out of the common room down to breakfast.  
  
"Project Valentine's is in business," Sirius whispered to Annie, kissing her on the cheek. 


	2. The Second Admittance and an Incredible ...

Valentine's Day  
Chapter 2  
  
"Jamsie! Oh Jamie Boy!" Sirius bounced into the Great Hall, looking very excited about something. James tried to pretend he didn't hear him.  
  
"So, James. Do you have someone in mind for the Valentine's Day Dance?" Sirius asked.  
  
"Ugh. Go away, Sirius. Can't you see I'm moping here?" James replied, staring into his oatmeal.  
  
"Oh, I see, you still haven't gotten over your break up with Louise," Sirius said, as if reading James's mind.  
  
"Unnng. If you must know, yes," he said, still looking at his oatmeal.  
  
"Oh, what's this I hear? The biggest player in the school doesn't have a date for Valentine's Day?" asked Annie, coming to sit down next to Sirius.  
  
"No, I don't," he replied shortly.  
  
"James, James, James. The Valentine's Dance is tonight! You gotta ask someone!" Annie said, acting like it was the biggest thing in the world. "Is there anyone you would like to ask?"  
  
~Yah…Lily Evans. But she would never like me. She thinks I'm a big headed jerk.~ "Well, there is someone…" He trailed off.  
  
"Ok, we're making progress," Sirius said happily. "Annie happens to be the best guesser around."  
  
"Yah. I found out who…someone…likes this morning," she replied, thinking it would not be good to say Lily's name.  
  
"Go ahead. This is someone you would never guess."  
  
"Ok, same routine as this morning. Ravenclaw?"  
  
"No"  
  
"Hufflepuff?"  
  
"No"  
  
"Not yucky Slytherin!"  
  
"EWW! NO WAY! I would never like those sluts!"  
  
"Ok. Gryffindor. Um…I take it it's not me."  
  
"Right"  
  
"Is she in our year?"  
  
"Yup"  
  
"Ok. Arabella?"  
  
"Nope. I told you you'd never guess."  
  
"Mandy?"  
  
"Nope."  
  
"Leslie?"  
  
"Nope."  
  
"I saved the best for last. Lily?"  
  
James just stared into his oatmeal again.  
  
"You do?! This is the best news we have heard all day!" Sirius exclaimed loudly, making a few heads turn. "Sorry, I just found out that…um…Annie's eyes are blue!"  
  
A couple people laughed and turned away. They all knew Sirius almost always made a lot of noise.  
  
"We have class in a couple of minutes. Come on Sirius, you know, McGonagall won't like it if we're late again." Annie said dragging Sirius out of the room. No doubt to go make out in a closet.  
  
Laughing to himself about his friends, he didn't notice that Lily was talking to him.  
  
"Um, James? Jaaames…Can you hear me?" she asked, asking like he was some kind of crazy person.  
  
"Oh! Sorry! I was just laughing at Annie and Sirius," he said, blushing. He was amazed at how green her eyes were, and how perfect her hair was.  
  
"Oh, what did they do now?" she asked, sounding interested.  
  
"Annie dragged Sirius out of the room, saying we had class. Class doesn't start for 30 minutes."  
  
"Oh, you know them. They're hopelessly in love."  
  
"I know. You wouldn't even know they had been going out for a week."  
  
"So…I can't wait till the Quidditch match. We are so gonna beat Slytherin. I can't wait to see their faces…" Lily said, happily imagining the fallen looks on Snape's face.  
  
"Do you wanna play a prank on them?"  
  
"Like right now?"  
  
"Duh. I've been sitting here waiting for the perfect moment. One came when I was talking to Sirius and Annie about…well…stuff, but I couldn't, cuz my oatmeal was very interesting at the time."  
  
"What was so interesting about your oatmeal? It's always the same."  
  
"Never mind!" James said, turning crimson.  
  
"They didn't say anything about…me…did they?"  
  
"Nah. It was more about me."  
  
There was an akward silence. Both were hoping that their best friends didn't tell the other their conversations this morning.  
  
"So, what's the prank?" Lily asked, breaking the silence.  
  
"Oh! I was gonna turn all the Slytherins pink. You know…for Valentine's Day."  
  
"That's great! Why didn't I think of that. I'll help you! I'm better at Charms you know." Both of them got incredible marks, being the best in their year, followed closely by Annie, Sirius and Remus. But Lily excelled at Charms, and James excelled at Transfiguration.  
  
"Right now is perfect. Snape, Malfoy, Avery, Nott, Crabbe, Goyle and the Slytherin sluts are all there. On three. One…Two…THREE!" James whispered.  
  
Two seconds later, the entire Slytherin table was pink. One half flashed red and magenta, the flashed pale pink and dark pink.  
  
"POTTER!" McGonagall screamed.  
  
"It wasn't me!" he said, looking shocked that she would think of him first.  
  
"Ms. Evans? Is this true?" McGonagall asked, hardly daring to believe it.  
  
"Yes. I'm sorry. I convinced James to help me. It was my fault. I've never liked Valentine's Day, so I decided to take out my anger on the Slytherins. It took me a while to convince James to help me. If you punish someone, punish me. It was my idea," Lily said, looking very sincere.  
  
"Well, since you are taking the blame, I'll give both you and Potter detention. If I really believed you, I would only give you detention. But I don't believe a word of what you just said."  
  
"You didn't need to do that, you know," James said to Lily. "You didn't need to get detention."  
  
"Hey, don't worry bout it. I don't care. It was too good of a trick not to take the blame for."  
  
"Well, detention won't be quite as lonely as usual."  
  
"Oh, you go there a lot?" Lily asked.  
  
"Yah. I have the detention record. Well, me and Sirius share it."  
  
They looked over, and McGonagall was trying to change the Slytherins back to their normal color. It wasn't working  
  
"What did you do?" James whispered.  
  
"I put an Everlasting Charm on. It won't wear off until this evening right before the dance. I decided it would be to mean to make them be pink during the dance."  
  
"You are a genius! I need to plot with you more often."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
Sirius and Annie stood outside the Great Hall's door, watching.  
  
"Well, that went well," Annie said.  
  
"That trick was incredible! Why didn't James tell us?" Sirius asked, looking impressed and hurt at the same time.  
  
"Obviously, he wanted Lily to help."  
  
"Cuz he LOVES her."  
  
Both of them broke into helpless giggles. 


	3. Pink Doves and Secrets

Valentine's Day  
Chapter 3  
  
"Sirius! I just had a major brainwave!" Annie exclaimed in a whisper (A/N: k, it's kinda an oxymoron)  
  
"What is it?" he asked, looking interested.  
  
"We've gotta force Lily and James to work together in Transfiguration! By the end of the day, James WILL ask Lily to the dance, and hopefully ask her out," she said determinedly.  
  
"Ok, sweetie, what's the plan?"  
  
  
  
"Today, we will be working in partners. You will be able to choose your partners. You will have to choose a partner of the opposite gender," McGonagall's voice came to Lily. She brought her thoughts back to earth. Without even realizing it, she was staring at James.  
  
"Lily, D'ya wanna be my partner?" James's wonderful voice came to her ears.  
  
"Sure!" she replied, hoping she didn't sound to eager.  
  
"Today, we will be turning these ravens into pink doves to decorate the ball," McGonagall droned in a very boring explaination of the process. 5 people started nodding off. James, Lily, Annie, Sirius, and Remus had been able to perform the simple spell since 3rd year (a/n-this is in 6th year). "There will be a prize for the partners with the most doves at the end."  
  
This added an air of competition to the class. Lily and James, Annie and Sirius, and Remus and Mandy were turning out pink doves left and right. Lily made sure none of theirs ran away. Peter was having horrible luck with his raven. Arabella was unfortunate enough to be his partner. Arabella was intelligent, but being stuck with Peter, she had to avoid being hit by the spell. Everyone laughed as Peter accidentally turned himself into a pink dove. McGonagall had to untransform him. 5 minutes before the bell, she counted doves. There was a tie between Sirius, Annie, Lily, and James.  
  
"The two pairs will open the dance tonight," McGonagall said calmly.  
  
Annie and Sirius smiled at each other. This was working out better then they had ever imagined. Lily and James would have to dance with each other.  
  
Both Lily and James looked pleased. When the bell rang, Annie insisted that she had to go to the bathroom and dragged Lily with her.  
  
"Aren't you a lucky bitch?" she said as she pulled Lily away from the rest of the house.  
  
"Some twist of fate, wasn't that?" Lily said, hardly daring to believe it.  
  
"I've got something else to tell you. Sirius and I were talking to James, and well, we guessed who he liked." Annie acted very reluctant to tell Lily.  
  
"OOOO! Who?" Lily said, instantly hooked.  
  
"Well, Lily, this may come as bad news, but he likes…"  
  
"Oh, just tell me!"  
  
"Well…it's…No, I can't tell you!"  
  
"Come on!"  
  
"No, I promised! I'll tell you after the dance!"  
  
Two girlish screams came from the top of the stairs.  
  
^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^  
  
"What the hell was that?" James asked as a loud scream echoed through the halls.  
  
"Oh…Sounds like Annie. She musta had some juicy gossip to tell Lily," he said, shrugging it off.  
  
"Do you think it had anything to do with…you know…me?"  
  
"Um…yah…bout that…well, there's something I need to talk to you about," Sirius looked very morose.  
  
"What is it Sirius?"  
  
"Annie and I know who Lily likes"  
  
"Who is it?" ~Please let it be me, please let it be me~  
  
"It's you, buddy boy! She loves you!"  
  
"Yes! Good. I'm gonna ask her to the dance during lunch!"  
  
"Good! Good! I gotta go talk to Annie!"  
  
James knew that Sirius had probably planned this all along. Once the two biggest pranksters (besides him, of course) had an idea in their head, they never gave it up.  
  
{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}  
  
"Did you tell him?" Annie asked Sirius as he approached her.  
  
"Of course. He said he was gonna ask Lily to the dance during lunch."  
  
"I love doing this matchmaking thing! It's so fun!"  
  
"I know. But do you know what I love more?" Sirius grabbed Annie's hand.  
  
"No, what?" Annie asked playfully.  
  
"My girlfriend. Oh yah. One of my friends wanted to know if your throat tasted good."  
  
"Really. Do you wanna find out?"  
  
"Do you think I would say no?" 


	4. The Question

Valentine's Day  
Chapter 4  
  
A/N: Wow. Fourth chapter in four days. I do have a life, but I'm on break, and I have nothing better to do. It's my birthday in 2 days (2/20), and my parents and I are going skiing! Yay!  
  
James walked through the halls, stealing himself up for what he was going to do. He had never had trouble asking any other girl out, let alone to a dance. But Lily was different from all the other girls in the school. In fact, only Lily and Annie were the only two girls in 6th year who had not considered going out with James Potter. James had always thought they didn't like Quidditch players, but that idea was ruled out when Lily and Annie made the Quidditch team in 3rd year, and became good friends with Sirius and Remus. Then when Sirius and Annie started going out, it ruled out the idea that Annie didn't like players. Sirius, being one of the biggest players in the school (next only to James), had fallen in love with Annie. James had the distinct impression that Annie had like Sirius for a long time. Even when she was going out with another guy, she always could be caught flirting with Sirius, but not enough for her boyfriend to accuse her of flirting.  
  
James's memory went back even further, to the first train ride.  
  
**Flashback**  
  
"Hello, I'm Lily Evans."  
  
"I'm Annie Eclipse."  
  
"I'm Sirius Black."  
  
"I'm James Potter."  
  
"Nice to meet you," Lily said politely. "Mind if we sit here?"  
  
"Sure, go ahead," James said, snickering.  
  
Annie and Lily sat down on the chairs. Sirius and James broke down laughing as their hair turned green.  
  
"That was a great trick, Potter!" Sirius said, clapping James on the back.  
  
They failed to realize that two very angry girls with green hair were approaching them.  
  
"Oh, it was YOU who did this!?" Lily practically screamed.  
  
"Lilz, don't tie your tail in a knot!" Sirius said, hoping he would get on her good side. "I know the counterspell!"  
  
"James Potter, I hate you!" Lily screamed.  
  
**End Flashback**  
  
He smiled as he remembered the prank. He had been hoping that there would be two girls who had fallen desperately in love with him, and who would think the trick was cute. Instead, he had stumbled upon the girl who would not let him get away with any trick.   
  
During 1st and 2nd year, they kept a healthy rivalry going. No one ever got hurt, but humiliation was the key goal of all the tricks. But soon, James had started going out with girls, and Lily became more immersed in her studies. During 3rd year, a few tricks were played at the beginning of the year. But then Lily and James stopped, and stopped being friends. Sure, they talked some, but only when Annie, Remus, or Sirius forced them to.  
  
Lost in his thoughts, James didn't realize that he was at the Great Hall. He was brought back to reality by a door, put inconveniently in his way, which happened to be in the way of his head too.  
  
Rubbing his head, he walked into the Great Hall. He saw Lily, sitting alone at the table, reading a book.  
  
"Hey Lilz. Mind if I sit here?" he asked her charmingly.  
  
"No, sure go ahead," she said, putting down her book.  
  
"Say, do you have a date for the dance by any chance? (A/N:Hehe…that rhymes)" he sounded casual, hoping not to sound desperate, which would make Lily feel like a last resort.  
  
"No. But don't you dare make fun of me for it! You probably have all the girls in the school lining up to go out with you, but not me…No one wants to go out with-"  
  
"Lily! Do you wanna go to the dance with me?" he said, almost shouting over Lily's loud voice. A few heads turned at this. James could see Gryffindors whispering to each other.  
  
"What? You wanna go…with me? Is this a joke?" Lily shrieked, almost daring to believe it.  
  
"Yes, I want to go to the dance with you. I like you Lily. I missed it when we stopped playing tricks on each other. Why did we?" he asked, knowing the answer.  
  
"You found girls. I found books. We drifted apart, I guess," she explained, acting very sad about it.  
  
"Well, I want to put us back together. Do you want to go to the dance with me?" he asked yet again.  
  
"I'd love to," she replied happily.  
  
"Great! It's set. I'll meet you in the common room tonight at 7:45."  
  
"Ok! I'll be there!"  
  
As James walked out of the Great Hall, he heard mutterings of "I knew it all along," and "Finally, they got together," and only one, "Ha! Now you have to pay me! I told you they'd get together by the end of 6th year." He realized that the entire school had been waiting for them to get together. Maybe he would ask her out tonight. If he got up the courage.  
  
^*^*^*^  
  
"Annie! Annie!" Lily screamed as she saw Annie in the hall.  
  
"What is it, Lilz?" she said, turning around.  
  
"You'll never guess what happened!" she whispered in Annie's ear, so the rest of the people in the hall couldn't hear her.  
  
"What? Let's go up to the dorm. I need to drop off a book."  
  
Both of them ran up the stairs, and didn't stop running until they were in front of the Fat Lady.  
  
"Password, dearies? My, you look like you ran all the way from the Great Hall!"  
  
"Not far from the truth," Annie huffed. "Roses!"  
  
The portrait opened up, and Lily and Annie scrambled inside. They sat on the chairs near the fire.  
  
"Annie, you will never guess what happened today at lunch!"  
  
"What?"  
  
"James asked me to the dance!"  
  
"Ok, girl, give me all the details!"  
  
Lily told Annie exactly what James said. Annie was secretly smiling to herself. The plan worked!  
  
"Dude! Lily! We've got 5 minutes to get to Charms!" Annie exclaimed looking at the clock.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"A little late, aren't we?" Sirius whispered to Annie, as she slid in next to him.  
  
"Uh, yah, I know. But I've got something to tell you after class!"  
  
"Ms. Evans, Ms. Eclipse! You're late!" Flitwick cried out.  
  
"Sorry professor! We were so caught up in thinking about the dance we lost track of time!" Annie said. She had always been the one who could get them out of anything.  
  
"Oh, that's ok. I know how exciting it can be for youngsters like you," Flitwick said.  
  
"James, mind if I sit here?" Lily asked James.  
  
"No prob," he said happily. 


End file.
